The Telegraph reports that police haven’t specified which laws were violated by the painting titled “Travesty,” in which a slip-clad Putin combs the hair of a curvaceous Medvedev in a lingerie set. The seizure was characteristic for Putin, known for his lack of humor, unrelenting censorship and inhumane laws, like one that prohibits anyone from insulting state leaders or another that outlaws “homosexual propaganda.”

Police launched the search-and-seizure sans warrants and wound up shutting down the entire gallery, which included risque parodies of President Obama and other world leaders, its manager told reporters.

What’s idiotic, besides the blatant censorship, is that Putin pushed an obscure painting he hates into the national spotlight, catapulting the image from an audience of maybe hundreds to millions across the globe. We call it the Streisand effect, named after the singer who in suing to get a photo of her house off a government website drew national attention to the image.